WOOD DIY: Wood Burned Waterless Snow Globe

I love a good snow globe, but let's face it, they are tricky to make without creating a watery mess. For this project, I wood burned Walnut Hollow wood to create a waterless snow globe with a winter theme. I know, it's not even Halloween yet, and I'm already transitioning into Christmas. Let's argue about it later. Some of us started making Halloween projects back in July...yeah. Back to this project. Wood is great to create custom designs. Wood burning gives your wood artwork more depth than just paint or stain alone. My 1st wood burned project was a similar landscape, on a scrap of wood. My momma probably still has it somewhere. The details look intimidating right? Look at all those colors. It's watercolor! Hard to mess that up, when with some clean water, you can dilute any mistakes. Shading is way easier when you can easily control the pigment opacity with water. I highly recommend getting this Artist's Loft watercolor set from Michaels. $5...or less with a coupon. It's great for wood and paper projects. I feel like every crafter has this in their stash...or if you're like me, you have a few of them as back ups, because you almost ran out of white making this. Enough rambling, time to make your house smell like wood and paint!

SUPPLIES:
Walnut Hollow, Plaid Crafts (Mod Podge), and DecoArt supplied me with their products. All other supplies are at my expense. Walnut Hollow paid me to create this project.

1) Lay one 3" Basswood Country Slab on the bottom 1/4 of the Small Basswood Country Round. Shift it until it's slightly beyond the round's sides. Using the pencil, lightly draw a line. This indicates where the design should stop. Set the slab aside.

2) On the round, draw your design. Start with the curved hills. Add details along the hills, erasing lines where needed. This is a basic wood burning guide. You'll add in tiny details as your wood burning.

3) Screw on the Universal Point onto the Creative Versa-Tool. Set the tool on the stand. Turn the dial up to the red end. Let heat up for 5 minutes.

4) Start with your large details. Follow the lines with the tip of the Universal point, dragging it along the lines, like you do with a pencil. After you've wood burned your drawing, go back in and add little details...snowflakes, house elements, snowman characteristics, road texture, smoke, clouds, and etc. Turn the tool off and let it cool down completely before handling. This takes about 15-20 minutes. Perhaps a snack or bathroom break would be good now.

OPTIONAL: Woodburn a sentiment onto the back of the round. Maybe a message to the recipient, your name, and the date.

5) Unscrew the Universal Tip. Screw on the Mini Flow Point. Set the tool on the stand. Turn it up to red and wait 5 minutes for it to fully warm.

6) With the Mini Flow Point, press it straight down into the wood to create snowballs and tree ornaments. Turn the tool off. Once it's fully cool, you can store it back in its box.

7) Use a big eraser, and remove any remaining pencil lines.

8) Time to add the paint! You'll use the DecoArt Gloss Enamels fine detail brush , the watercolor set, and cup of water. Using the brush, add a little water to the chosen color and swirl it around to dissolve some paint. Start with the colored details 1st. After those are done, do all the white, even painting below the starting line. Add grey shading to the snow, clouds, and smoke. Add light blue shading to the moon and snowman. Add light brown shading to the snowballs and under the trees. Add a pale yellow glow around the fire.

9) With the DecoArt Media Fluid Metallic Acrylics in Silver and fine detail paint brush, add dots to the wood burned ornaments on the tree.

OPTIONAL: Add clear glitter where desired. It has a iridescent sparkle. A light coating on the snow would look good. If you use glitter, you'll want to seal the painting with Mod Podge Gloss, to maintain the sparkle.

10) Using the flat paint brush and Mod Podge Ultra Matte Chalk Finish, seal the painting, bark, and two slab pieces. When the wood is dry, the pieces will have a dull waxy appearance.

11) Flip the pieces over. Line the slab up with the round where you previously drew a line. Prop the round up evenly, to make hammering easier. I used another round. Hammer in two flat head nails, to connect the slab and round.

12) While still propped, line up the 2nd slab piece with the 1st, so the bottoms and sides match. Hammer two finishing nails into the slab, attaching it to the round. When you set the snow globe up, it should be steady.

That's all for this project. You can make the design as simple or complex as you want. Include elements that would mean something to the recipient. Say of they like skiing, include a chair lift and someone skiing. If they like driving to cut down their own tree Griswold style, perhaps their car with a huge tree on it, would be cool. Maybe they go all out with the bright Christmas lights, so you add glittery accents around a house and big snowy yard. Maybe they don't have snow, so decorate a palm tree and desert. Whatever you chose, have fun with it! You can see more of my wood projects over on Walnut Hollow's blog! Happy Makery!